Twa Hopes For Full Service In Week

NEW YORK — Trans World Airlines said Saturday it was flying about half its normal flights Saturday and hoped to restore full service in a week despite a strike by 6,000 flight attendants.

Members of the Independent Federation of Flight Attendants were picketing at major airports across the country after the union called a strike Friday when negotiations collapsed in Washington. No new talks are scheduled.

Sally McElwreath, a TWA spokeswoman, said the company was operating at about the same level as on Friday when TWA Chairman Carl Icahn said the airline was able to maintain about 50 percent of its normal schedule with the help of 1,500 newly hired attendants and supervisory personnel.

``By next Friday or Saturday we anticipate to be back to 100 percent of our flights,`` McElwreath said.

Some 43 flights, mostly domestic, were scheduled to depart Saturday from John F. Kennedy International Airport compared to a normal schedule of 53, McElwreath said. The airline also said it was flying to 19 of 23 cities it normally services overseas.

But in London TWA Saturday canceled three U.S.-bound flights - to New York, Chicago and Boston - from Heathrow Airport. The passengers were transferred to other airlines.

The chief stumbling blocks in the dispute were wage concessions and work rules.

``We did not strike by choice because we had no choice,`` said union President Vicki Frankovich.

Cynthia deFigueiredo, a union spokeswoman, said some of the more than 450 flight attendants stranded by the strike in 18 cities across Europe were scheduled to arrive at Newark Airport Saturday night on another airline.

The airline`s pilots refused to back the walkout, which came following a 30-day federally ordered cooling-off period.

But in Kansas City, Mo., about 3,500 machinists who repair and overhaul TWA planes refused to cross the picket lines, a union spokesman said.

Kim Weber, treasurer of Machinists Local 1650 in Kansas City, said all members were honoring picket lines.

The airline sought a temporary restraining order against the machinists but a federal judge refused to grant it.

McElwreath said, however, that all planes were being properly maintained and that ``even if nobody showed up supervisory personnel would be able to handle the maintainence.``

Icahn, a maverick businessman who took control of the airline in January, imposed a 22 percent wage cut and new work rules requiring longer hours without overtime. He said the concessions were crucial to keep the airline competitive.